US, European airlines halt flights to Israel

WASHINGTON/FRAnkfurt - US air airlines — Delta, American and United — said on Tuesday that they have halted flights to Israel to ensure passenger safety amid intensification of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Delta and United said in separate statements that they have suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv “until further notice.”Atlanta-based Delta said it was operating in coordination with the US Federal Aviation Administration “to ensure the safety of our customers and employees.”The flight stoppages came after a town on the fringes of Ben-Gurion International Airport, was hit by a rocket lightly injuring two people, officials said. Meanwhile, Casey Norton, a spokesman for American Airlines, said an inbound and outbound flight operated by its US Airways unit between Philadelphia and Tel Aviv was cancelled. Major European carriers followed their US counterparts and suspended flights to Israel over security concerns amid the raging Gaza conflict. Air France said it was suspending service to Ben Gurion International Airport until further notice while Germany’s Lufthansa said it was halting flights for 36 hours.Lufthansa said the step, which also affects its subsidiaries Austrian Airlines, Germanwings and Swiss, was being taken “for the security of passengers and crew” amid the “unstable situation.”Brussels Airlines cancelled one flight late on Tuesday and three flights on Wednesday. Earlier Delta announced that it had diverted a flight bound for Tel Aviv to Paris after “reports of a rocket or associated debris near the airport in Tel Aviv.”